Evaluation of the woman's drop-in service in Benarty, Fife

A survey of the health needs of women aged between 16 and 64 years of age in the Benarty area was carried out by the Department of Public Health in Fife. In response to the findings of this survey and in particular to the expressed wish for a drop-in service to be made available and for access to self-help groups and counselling sessions, a multi-agency project was established in the Benarty area of Fife. Two drop-in centres were set up, in a local community centre and in a primary care clinic, and were staffed by health visitors, social workers and staff from the community education department. The centres were each open twice a week for 2-3 hours on each occasion and crèche facilities were made available. The aims of the service were to provide counselling on a one-to-one basis, to establish self-help groups based on the expressed needs of women and to refer people on to the most appropriate services, if necessary. The service was established on a pilot basis and an essential component of the project was an evaluation of the service.

To evaluate the service a community survey was carried out involving a random sample of 370 women taken from the community health index, and a register was kept to record details of attendances.

Two hundred and sixty-five women were successfully interviewed, a response rate of 72 per cent. The major finding of concern was that 63 per cent of women had not heard of the drop-in service, suggesting that the advertising of the centres had been ineffective. Analysis of the clinic register showed that a total of only 77 women had attended the two drop-in centres over a 12-month period.

Owing to the low attendance rates, the service was disbanded after one year of operation. It is possible that these low rates may be explained, at least in part, by the fact that a large number of local social services had been developed in the Benarty area since the time of the needs assessment survey in 1991. The introduction of these new local services within this area may have met many of the needs of women who otherwise may have made use of the drop-in service. The results of the survey underline that the introduction of a new service needs to be underpinned by an effective communication strategy which is realistically budgeted and maintained over a period of time if there is to be successful penetration of the messages within the community. One successful aspect of the pilot project was the improved working relationships between the statutory health and social services staff who collaborated in the operation of the service.